Australian Fisheries Production Falls

AUSTRALIA - The total volume of Australian fisheries production fell by three per cent (7,800 tonnes) to 236,000 tonnes in 2008, according to a new report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).

The gross value of production fell by one per cent ($24 million) to $2.19 billion and of all the Commonwealth managed fisheries, the northern prawn fishery was the most valuable fishery in value terms, contributing $74 million of the gross value of production, followed by the Commonwealth trawl sector ($46 million) of the southern and eastern scalefish and shark fishery and the southern bluefin tuna fishery ($45 million).

Tasmania accounted for the largest share of gross value of production (22 per cent), followed by South Australia (21 per cent) and Western Australia (20 per cent).

The gross value of aquaculture production increased by eight per cent ($62.7 million), to $868 million, and accounted for 40 per cent of the gross value of Australian fisheries production (includes SBT wildcatch input to the South Australian tuna ranching sector).

The volume of aquaculture production was 62,500 tonnes, accounting for 26 per cent of total Australian fisheries production.

The gross value of production for the wildcatch sector decreased by six per cent ($82.6 million) to $1.3 billion. The volume of production decreased by five per cent (10,400 tonnes) to 178,400 tonnes.